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lollol 



PS 3527 
.184 T8 
1919 
iCopy 1 



A 

3UTE 

TO 








BY 
DAVID CHALMERS NIMMO 



Author of 



^1 



"Nature Songs," "Home Songs," 
"Soul Songs," "Soldier Songs," "Songs and Tales," ett 

Copyrighted 1919 






V 



^ 



Paragraph from 

Preface to * 'Nature Songs** 

A great deal more in this book than the mere po- 
etic forms will instantly compel comparisons with the 
poet Shelley. It is the right place to acknowledge 
the relationship which is none other than that of 
poetic fatherhood. When attending McMaster Uni- 
versity in Toronto my first real interest was aroused 
in lyrical verse by our studies in Palgrave's "Golden 
Treasury of Songs and Lyrics." In this book I was 
especially attracted to Shelley and read, out of class, 
all the shorter and most of his longer productions. 
My delight was so great that on one occasion I 
skipped the mathematical lectures and memorized the 
"Adonais." This was no doubt a grave university sin 
but I have ever considered it, apart from nature's 
endowment, as one of the best inspirations of the 
spirit of poetry in me. With the pcvems continually 
singing themselves in my ears and the visions flash- 
ing across my eyes it is but natural that both the 
inner spirit and the outer form should take som^ 
thing from the soul that nursed them into being and 
in some measure gave them their ideal. In view of 
this I have sometimes thought to write a song of 
appreciation as I have done for some other persons 
in "Civic Songs," but there are so many conscious 
and unconscious evidences of my obligation that it 
seems hardly necessary. 



'C1.A513602 



iR ib!9!9 



THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 

Dancing!" Dancing! Dancing! 

Spirits pure and bright! 
Dancing! Dancing! Dancing! 
Round a court of light, 
^A host of spirits blest and fairy-like to sight. 

Where are these dancers gay? 

Where is the court you spy? 
This spirit, elf and fay 

That on your visions fly. 
And raise out of your heart this glad ecstatic cry? 

Where? Yonder where from olden, 
Was built old winter's throne; 

Where summer summer golden 
Is never "never known. 
But Iceland's ancient king rifles all the pol-.ir zone? 

Yonder where night's curtain 
The storms in anger blow. 
Where never , i^uncertain 
Vast fields oflce and snow, 
And clear and frosty nights and furry Eskimo. 

Yonder where 'the mountains 

Pure ices diadem; 
Where the crystal fountains 

Mount geyser-like to them; 
And where the glacier flows and icebergs o?ean gejp 

bonder on the summit 

Around the polar star; 

Climbing up the plummet 

And coming from afar. 

See, see the dancers come in reindeer driven car! 



Dancing! Dancing! Dancing! 

Fairy, elf and sprite! 
Dancing! Dancing! Dancing' 

Phantoms of delight! 
Nature's dreams from far in poet robes bedightf 

These in "white enrobe, 

As if floretted snow 
From 5^on pure silver globe 

Around their forms did bl07v% 
To rival and to shame all gov/ns of shine ';.nd show. 

These in blue are clad. 

As if the azure deep 
A portion of his plaid 

Had cast round them to ke:p, 
To be in royal style at that ecstatic leap. 

That in green is dressed, 
J. As if the flowers and grass . 
Nature wove and pressed 

And gave to some sweet lasr,, 
And laughed unto herself that she would all surpass. 

That in red is tinged. 

As if the setting sun 
A straying fleece had singed 

And sent it on the run 
To fasiilon's famous ball and dared to be outdona 

Here comes the poet's sons, 

Clad in robes divine; 
The royal purple ones- 
He sent to lead the line, 
^nd knew within himself that none would them outshine. 

Here comes the maiden's race. 

Her dreams of heart and mind; 
Oh the pansy pansy grace 

That round them has been twined. 
And, :brighter beauties still upon their faces kind! 



others rainbow tinted, 

As spears of melting ice 
The liquid waters printed 
With their prismic device 
And gave a magic robe a joy could never price. 

Dancing! Dancing! Dancing! 

What a mazy flight! 
Dancii \g ! Dancing ! Dancing • 
On our mortal sight 
Every motion, style and grace and all in piire delight! 
> 

Forward with a bound; 

Backward with a glide; 
Then turning round and round 
Till head does dizzy lide; 
Then promenading up, and in from side tc side. 

Now hand in hand they go; 

Now swinging left and righl; 
Now up the center so; 
Now spinning swift as sighi; 
Oh it is a mazy crowd and drunken with delight! 

Fantastic, straight and fair. 

Sudden, now and then. 
Yonder, here and there, 

Unseen and in our ken; 
Mocking us and -all our v/hat and why and when? 

Rising high and oft, 

Frosty, straight and strong, 
Sinking, silent, soft. 
Narrow, thin and long. 
And if our sense could hear, Oh singing whac 9 song. 

Moving, quick and mad. 

Crystal, pure and clear. 
Conical and glad. 

Enthroned and far and neai, 
Celestial and divine as being can appear 



oil round and round and round 

Like figures in a dream 
These poet spirits bound 
To music like a stream 
That bursts within the heart with overflowing teem. 

Dancing ! Dancing ! Dancing ! 

Souls of electric light! 
Dancing! Dancing! Dancing! 

Essential natures bright! 
Bodiless and beautiful as ever met the sight ! 

How we sluggish mortals 

Wonder and admire, 
When these kingdom portals 

Are opened, and its fire 
Is flashed upon our sight with dreams of something higher I 

How earth and sea and sky- 
Are lifted with delight 

When yonder there on high 
They rise upon the sight. 
And draw all nature up as moons the oceaa bright! 

How the stars that sprinkle 

All the dome of space. 
Twinkle, brighter twinkle 
In their nocturnal race, 
When beauties so divine are circling in their grace! 

How youth and maid on pinions 

Here hasten with entrance; 
Flaming sword dominions 
Nor hinders their advance; 
Welcome, <velcome, welcome youth! Come! Mingle in the 

dance ! 

How the poet's pleasure 

Is passing into pain! 
His joys like their own measure 
Is swelling every vein. 
Inspiring fancy's fairy forms around his heait and brain. 



How, how his very dreams 

Grow passionate and faint! 
Grow thirsty for new streams 
To drink away complaint 
Which these on high inspire and perfect blessing taint! 

Dancing! Dancing i Dancing! 

In the vision caught; 
Dancing! Dancing! Dancing! 

Lost and found in thought, 
In brighter dreams divine and higher wisdom taught! 

What revelry and sports 
* Upon that mountain height' 

What carnival that courts 
Such spirits of delight! 
Oh what ecstatic bliss of touch and sound and sight! - 

That scene it is the joy 

That filleth nature's iieart; 
The height of her employ 
Is free and full to bart 
Her happiness of life to all thp.t from her start. 

Vv^hat divinest glory 

Before the eye has sailed? 
What harmony or story 
Or prophecy been hailed? 
What life and love and light and truth have been unveiled? 

That beauty does entrance, 

That love their hearts inflame. 

That song impel to dance. 
That hope and starry fame. 
Which we have seldom felt and never think or claim. 

Where the souls are purest 

They dwell above the spheres; 
There freedom is securest. 
And life exempt from fears, 
And joy contagious, quick and sweet as that which here 

appears. 

5 



Where a love is living 

'Tis full and sweet and puicj, 
Rejoicing in its giving 
And thus is most secure; 
The heart that gives its all and self forever shall endure. 

Where the life is deepest 

Is mountings oft and high; 
And as it upward leapest 

With joy's ecstatic cry 
It finds and lives within the life that fills Lne azure sky. 

Where the light is brightest 
Appears the most divine; 
Wherever beauty lightest 
It is a rainbow sign 
That God is seeking thus to draw thy heart with his to 

twine. 
Dancing! Dancing! Dancing,! 
Through the live-long night. 
Entrancing! Oh entrancing 
With ma^ic magic might, 
For mortal and immortal are the dreams of love and light! 

THE BRIDE OF THE SUN. 

Oh hail, bright maiden, haili 

From thy mortal swoon 
What spirit rent the veil? 
What life restored the boon 
^nd sent thy queenly soul to seek thy lovej Noon? 

Who nursed thee from the trance? 

Who broke the shadowed spell 
That in the hour of dance 
Upon thy being fell? 
Who brought thee to the light where starry splendors 

dwell? 
Oh hail, bright maiden, hail! 
What life reviving dream 
O'er thy brain did sail. 
Upon thy heart did stream. 
That from thy liquid rest thy soul it should redeem? 



Hast thy mother earth. 

The mother most divine. 
Brought thee again to birth 
And with the infant shine 
That glowed upon thy face upon that morn benign? 

In thy soul's eclipse, 

Did the love beguile 
Thy lover to thy lips 
There to rest awhile 
And did his burning kiss awake this rapturous smile? 

• Or hast thou been above, 

In thy bower so bright 
To gaze upon thy love 
Across the cone of night 
And is this smiling life his answering delight? 

In this evening's hush 

What breath of love or wine 

Upon thy cheeks do flush 
And from thy heart divine 
Like some celestial fire doth through thy tdng ^ihine ? 

Perhaps some summer soul 

With magic magic flowers 
Whose living perfume^ roll 

To heaven's highest towers 
Is reaching up to thee the glory of the hours. 

Perhaps a strain of life, 

The echoes of the spheres 
Has healed thee of the strife. 
Is raining on thy ears 
The fancies, joys and hopes that fed thy heart for years. 

Perhaps love's intensity , 
High as starry height, 
Deep as is the sea, 

Warm as siimmer night, 
Pure as wiiitest fire, feed.Hh thee delighl 



Perhaps the dream of dream 

So fills the heart and brain 
Thy being over teems 

With sweet delicious pain 
That thou must wander forth where nature doth sustain. 

But why art thou so cold 

That thou dost fly apace 
From hearts that free unfold 

The fulnesp of their grace? 
And ask but in return a smile of thy bright face? 

Ihe dancing spirits gay 

Who love thee, in the wood 
Have left their fairy play 

And near the edge have stood, 
Have turned from watching thee to hide m solitude. 

A maiden like to thee, 

A pure and fragile cloud, 
Who came up from the sea 

In her soft silver shroud 
Has gone away to weep, heart-broke by thee sg proud. 

Thy risters in the sea 

In face and form and light, 
Twin spirits like to thee. 

Are trembling through the night 
With hope that thou wilt turn and feed their longing sight. 

Stars and planets pale 

For thy love do pine; 
Their sweet lights do fail 
For their eye,5 divine 
Are wearied with the watch they ever kef p on thine. 

Thy presence bright awakes 

The meteor from her trance 
So glad her sleep she shakes 
In her swift shining dance, 
Whose joyous love for thee now kills thy scornful glance. 



Like the very queen 

Of heaven's starry height 
Crowned in golc'en sheen, 
Clad in robe? of light, 
Thou ridest past the earth and all that lift the sight. 

Thy faith has never doubt 

That thou shalt ever miss 
His bmile which streameth out. 

Embalming many a kiss 
That rests upon thy heart prophetic of thy bliss. 

• That blest and bridal day 

Must be drawing near 
That night should so array 
Her dark and cloudy sphere 
In such a flood of light, serene and pure and clear. 

All lovers on the earth 

Look up with deep delight. 
The dreams that come to birth. 
The passion pure and white 
Are kindred unto thee, thou goddess of the night. 

Out, out of thee are dreams; 
Deep, deep in them desires; 
Down, down from thee are streams 
Of pure celestial fires 
And dreams, desires and hopes are dancing to the lyres. 

Thou leadest forth the swain. 
Thou callest forth the maid; 
Was ever such a twain 

As wandered down the glade 
And such another bride in golden light arrayed? 

' Thy overflowing joy 

Shoots down a piercing dar!. 
Oh youth and maiden coy, 
Till thy celestial art 
Has nourished into life the best within the heart. 



Thou pourest soft thy rain; 

They aream and dream and dieam. 
Life nearly is insane 
Such fountains in them teem 
And brighter than thyself the earthly bride doth seem. 

Beneath thy magic spell 

The magic word is found; 
Two fountain spirits well; 
Two hearts in one are bouitd 
And thou has seen and heard, apd both with gladness 

crowned. 
Through the window .ight 

Thy smiles upon them stream ; 
Thy rays of magic might 
Within their beings teem — 
A bridegroom and a bride, a dream within a dream. 

But Oh that passing cloud ^ 

Upon thy breast and face, 
That wraps thee like a shroud 
As round a mortal race, 
To disappoint the hope that life and love embrace! 

Like ours. Oh radian maid! 

Hast thy love a moan? 
Art thou e'er afraid 
Lest the earth's dark cone. 
Like death will come between, and leave thee all alone? 

Fear not! He an urn has filled 

With vital vital dew. 
That has been distilled 

From his dome of blue 
To sprinkle on thy heart and thy young life renew. 

He will send thee now 
Fleecy sandals rare. 
Stars to gem thy brow, ' 

Veils of misty air 
And rainbow ribbon bands to bind tl y streaming hair. 

10 



The chariot of the wind, 

The steeds of swiftest time. 
Along the zodiac signed 
With images sublime, 
Bear thee all heaven's queen while starry echoes chime. 

Jn the golden dawn 

The god of life and light 
Awaits. Thou wilt be drawn 

liito his bosom bright 
And in the deep embrace be lost an hour tc sight! 

Oh pure celestial maid! 
* Oh bride the most divine! 

There never V7ap displayed 
Such beauty to our eyne. 
And thou has fed the heart of life's eternal pine. 

Farewell, chaste bride, farewell: 

May joy attend thy flight! 
My heart songs ne'er can tell 
It's wish for thy delight 
When thou Las joined thy love in bowers of morning 

bright. 



THE ECHO. 

Hush, hush my heart, be still! 

Oh hark with bated breath! 
Thy being silence fill 

As motionless as death! 
A soft celestial voice, a world for what she saith! 

Oh hush my heart! The birth 

And being most divine 
I ever heard on earth, 

Between her world and mine 
Is singing, and my life for hers I would resign. 

Oh matchless sou] of song! 

Spirit of melody! 
The leader of the throng 

11" 



Of lyric natures free! ' 

The most divinest life inspires the heart in thee. 

Thee nature loves to greet; 

Her singers siJent be; 
Wave, stream and tree entreat 

Thy music rich and free, 
And drink and drink and drJnk thy living melody. 

Unseen, enchanting fairy! 
Unknown, beloved sprite! 
On ether wings most airy 
With far encircling flight, 
Round lake and o'er the hills thy song rolls with delight 

Awaking joy so pure 

The souls that hear thee sing, 
The strain cannot endure 
And from theii hearts they fling 
Their love and joy and praise and toward thee nearer 

spring. 
Clear, joyous and divine, 

A song nev>^ come to birth ; 
A singer drunk with wine. 
A bright and lyric mirth. 
Who sings to ease her heart and not for ours of earth. 

Pure and liquid soul! 

Dewy and rich and deep! 
Winds, clouds and azure roll 

The notes they cannot keep. 
And now they forth through thee to vocal being leap. 

Oh soft and dying tone! 

More far anc' faint and dear! 
A music serapli's moan 

In his beloved'b ear 
Is mingled with the breath which now I faintly hear. 

Fainter and more faint, 

Softer and more sweet. 
As a maiden saint 

Breathes when the angel feet 
Bear her lily, lily soul far dcwn earth's shadowed street. 

12 



Fainter and more faint, 

Your music ip no more, 
As last words cf a saint 

Speak to our spirit's core. 
Your silence is a song of sweet and lasting lore. 

Now silence g:rdeth round 

But soul must list'ning be. 
Straining in the calm profound 
To hear tho measures free 
That ever rise nnd ring as memory thinks of thee. 

m Oh clear and crystal singer! 

Again to life awake! 
Oh clear and crystal singer! 
Across the moon-light lake 
Your happy happy elfin horns, shake out again, Oh shake! 

Awake again. Oh wake! 

My heart for song doth pine! 
Thy lips again unbreak. 
And thy sweet voice divine 
Will be a lasting strain as on me ye untwine! 

Hark! Does the deepest fountain^ 
The lake's divinest daughter, 

Love the snowy mountain. 
The soul above the water. 
And whispers now a song as fervent love has taught her? 

Does now som? silver dream 

From icy summits free 
Through rocky gorges stream 

With fall and foam and glee 
A.nd sing his bridal song as happy as can be? 

Does the moon's bright soul 

Touch her golden lyre. 
And drink night's dewy bowl 
A new song to inspire 
For her other soul of deep and pure desire? 

13 



Is heaven's worla of l<5ve 
Here the nearest earth? 
Does some warm turtle dove, 
O'er her dearest birth 
Now throw upon our ears her first, sweet, mother mirth? 

Has some sweet fairy sprite 
From Paradise .just fell? 
In her descending flight 
Tinkles her fairy bell 
In silver, silver tones that swell and ever swell? 

Oh spirit, who art thou? 

Whence and what and where? 
Could I but see thee now. 

Thy being ijure and fair 
Would be a sight divine which love would treasure rare. 

But better thus unseen 

Like all things most divine; 
For nothing comes between 

Thy heart and hungry mine, 
And that encircling heart which all our hearts enshrine. 

Oh echo, thy refrain 

Is like a life to me! 
It passes through my brain 

And kindred finds to thee; 
Awaking sleeping dreams in coldest memory. 

I listen, yes I listen! 

I know! J know! I know! 
Mine eyes v>rith sorrows glisten. 

My heart doth overflow. 
Spirit of innocence from paradise, I trow! 

Thy spirit once was mine. 
And I v/as like to thee; 
We both were then divine 
And loved with purity; 
But life divorces hearts that in each other be. 

14 



Oh soui of angtl dower! 

Oh maid ot early years! 
The music of that hour 

That hour gtil more endears; 
To hear thee once again now melts my frozen tears: 

Oh hear me as I cry! 

Come to me once again ! 
Leave thy blue native sky! 

Abide with mortal men! 
Forgive and lead* me from this dark and stifling fen! 

• Oh dost thou turn away? 

I hear thy velvet feet 
More faintly as I pray. 

Shall this new warming meet 
No hope that here or hence thy spirit I shall greet? 

More faintei' and more faint 

I hear thee die away. 
As dieth my complaint 
For lack of words to pray 
For thee and thine and all of that eclipsed day. 

Beyond the hills afar 
I hear thee going fleet, 
. Go, going to the star 

Of morning, morning sweet 
And I would follow fast in hope we there jnay meet. 

Sing, sing Ye Echo Souls ! 

Oh often sing to me! 
Divinest music rolls 
And leads where none can see 
When e'er I hear your sweet, celestial melody. 

Sing, sing Ye Echo Sprites! 

Your silence oft unbind! 
From heaven's golden heights 

Ye open on my mind 
Such dreams of purity as lift and cleanse and blind 

15 



Sing, sing Ye Echo Hours ! 

Although ye wake the tears 
Ye lift me to the towers 
. With virtue of the spheres, 
And life's golden summits pure to the spirit far appears. 



THE MOCKING BIRD 

Mocking Bird, Oh Mocking Bird! 

The mention of thy name 
Deep desire within has stirred 
And from the north I came 
To hear the magic song that gives thy spirit fame. 

I harken now for thee; 

Sing, sing to me a strain ! 
Thy music full unfree 

Into my heart and brain! 
I'm kindred unto thee and list'ning as in pain. 

Hark! Hark! Is that the measure 

Bursting on my ear, 
Too high for sense of pleasure, 
Too deep for doubt or fear, 
Quick'ning song that reaches out with hunger 

vast to hear? 
Forth leaps the strain of life; 

Out shoots the stream of fire; 
It pierces like a knife; 
It quickens like inspire; 
Waking, waking, waking soul with infinite desire. 

Soul cannot think or dream. 

Can only hark and hear. 
All pov/ers that in me stream 
Are straining at my ear; 
To lose a single note is growing pain and fear. 

On flows the thriling sound; 

On sweeps the flood of song; 
Life riseth with a bound 

16 



Of passion swelling strong, 
Enchanted, chained and held though sweeping swift 

along. 

New fountains in me burst; 

Life mounteth up the steep; 
Has drunk away her thirst; 
Can walk and run and leap; 
Something strange, divine, and swift doth through 

her being sweep. 
Oh Music, thou art best 
Of all the muses fine! 
There floweth from thy breast 
* The songs for which we pine. 

Ever still the Queen of life, supremest and benign! 

Out, out thou now dost fling 

The fulness of thy heart, 
To earth and heaven sing 

The lyrics of an art 
That feedest full the passion of a life's immortal part! 

Far, far thou now dost throw 

A thousand notes of fire! 
Soul and song are in' a glow; 
Thou art lost in thy inspire. 
Crimson life is sweeping through thy heart so like a 

lyre. 
Forth, forth thou now dost pour 
The spirit-quick'ning strains! 
All spirits drink and soar 
Forgetful of their pains. 
After every vital draught more thirsty still remains. 

'Tis a glowing, glowing passion. 

Pure, flaming, swift and bright 
Tht music takes the fashion 
Of the spirit burning white. 
Every note intense and round and piercing with 

delight 
'Tis a wild ecstatic measure, 

A swift delirious strain. 
The youngest youngest pleasure 

17 



With a drunken heart and brain, 
That sorrow never never knew and never dreamed a 

pain. 
'Tis a lyric lyric rapture 

Of a lyric spirit glad, 
With lyrics that recapture 
The soul of sorrow sad, 
Restoring it the happiness no dreams have ever had. 

Here Nature sits and nurses 

Her children gathered round. 
She feedeth them the verses 
That in her bosom bound. 
And to her youngest singing soul has taught this 

glorious sound. 
Here beauties, dreams and visions 

Are crowding hill and dale; 
Loud laughing with derisions 
Or intense and still and pale; 
Spirit lifted up on high and swept on like a gale. 

Here song and joy and story 
Are list'ning as in trance; 
There is a flash of glory. 
Of splendor and romance 
Everv time the wild caprice sweeps the ' ecstatic 

dance. 
Here poet ranks and orders 

Come running from afar. 
Thy song ha^ crossed the borders 
And swings Ihe gates ajar, 
The past and future singers around thy presence are. 

They forward lean and listen, 

All straining and intense. 
Some eyes with sorrows glisten, 
Some swell with power immense 
Some white and glowing glow and all are free from 

sense. 
Between the breathing pauses 

Each smothers down his lyre. 
But the pulsing pulsing causes 
A bursting out of fire; 
One by one they sing to thee a snatch of their desire, 

18 



"I have heard the lyric chqrus 

Of the early dewy morn 
When before and round and o'er us 
As the sun again was born, 
Every winged singing soul with gladness new was 

torn. 
As I listened to that singing 

Up I mounted to the height; 
There were dreams before me winging 
That did capture my delight, 
'Til forgotten was the song in the images so bright. 

But the song that now is sweeping 
«» Flings enchantment on the ear; 

With the high crescendoes leaping 
I am climbing up the sphere, 
And abounding with the passion that is binding me 

to hear. 
As I circle round the pleasures 

Of the forest, sea and sky, 
I will never hear such measures 
: As this wild ecstatic cry; 
But the echoes, Oh the echoes, they will never never die." 

"I have heard the strings of liiTe 

And fingers full of fire; 
Though entangled in the strife 

Did answer their inspire. 
Leaping with a life divine and panting witl; desire. 

But this passion more intense. 
More intense and pure and v^bite, 

Delivers from all sense 
And spirit doth bedight 
In singing singing robes that bear me with delight 

Where priests and prophets liliig 
Their visions, dreams and lays. 
And flaming echoes fling 
Adowii enchanted ways 
Where Life and Love and Truth the scepter swings and 

sways. 

19 



As I go upon my way 

I will listen to the lyre 
But my hand will often stay 

Its throbbing strings of fire, 
Dreaming of this soul of song that captures my desire." 

"I have felt the hungry tooth 

Of the dragon of remorse 
Bite, bite unbitten youth 

With the fury of its force, 
Driving blinded and insane the mortal on its course. 

The spirit of the morn 

In rainbow beauty dressed 
Was torn as clouds are torn 
Before the storm's unrest. 
Pitching down the ruined night from heaven'.s highest crest. 

Life now has clean forgot 

The poison of the pain; 
The spirit so besot 

Is rising without stain. 
Binding tight the glorious song upon its heart and brain. 

As I go upon my course 

I will sing as sorrow sings. 
As sorrow is the source 

Of song that sweetest rings 
T will mingle it with this in the fountain hcaa of springs." 

"I have heard the systems swinging. 
Sing the echoes of the spheies, 

I have heard the ages winging 
Ring the choruses of years, 
And these broken-hearted mortals in the tragedy of tears. 

But the high eonic measures 

Of the universal score 
Are forgotten in the pleasures 

Of the strains that on me pour, 
hi the panting panting rapture of this lyric lyric lore. 

Sublime in their sublimity 
They go upon their way. 
Divine in thy divinity 

20 



The raptures of thy lay 
Createth new the worlds of life and sweep them down the 

day. 
When I sweep along the ages. 

When I soar above the spheres. 
When the battle fiercest rages, 
There will ring within my ears 
This passioned, passioned measure that is laughing at all 

fears." 
"I have heard the poet's lark 

Soar singing to the sun; 
All the world doth pause and hark 
^ As the stream adown doth run, 

Lost, lost and found in dreams when it is but begun. 

The beauty, bird and strain 
Doth lift Life out of earth. 
It pierces heart and brain 
Till dreams come unto birth. 
Singing, singing, singing songs delicious in mirth. 

Now far across the sea 

I bend a listening ear; 
And now I turn to thee 

Deep thriling as I hear. 
Yielding thine the palm of song, perhaps because so near. 

Those poets and their lark, 
These and their mocking bird,^ 

To each other bend and hark, 
By each other vast are stirred, 
More impassioned passioned praise was never never heard." 

"Unto the golden spheres 

Prom whence we came we turn. 
Not one of our compeers 
Thy song would dare unlearn. 
For through the future's lyre thy soul and song shall burn." 

Mocking Bird, Oh Mocking Bird! 

Oh Music wild and free! 
Though images and word 
Are pleasures unto me. 
Vaster, vaster is the joy of listening unto thee. 

21 



UBRABV 



OF CONGRESS 



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